Pain and no sleep: I had circumcision... - Men's Health Foru...

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Pain and no sleep

Marty0607 profile image
13 Replies

I had circumcision 9 days ago, and I’ve been having problems every since.

I’m waking up literally every 20-30 minutes with my penis trying to get erection but the pain im getting is what is waking me up. Then when It. goes down I’m able to go to sleep again. The only way I can describe it is that it feels like there is a ring of tissue or muscle on the shaft that’s feel like it’s strangling the penis when it’s becoming erected which is causing the pain. Anybody else had this as I’ve describe this to the helpline provide and they just didn’t help at all. I had to call a doctor to have a check and he couldn’t understand what I was explaining either.

Also I’m unable to walk problem as the sensitivity to the head of my penis is horrendously painful. Please someone help

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Marty0607
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13 Replies
Scousebpl profile image
Scousebpl

Hi, I went through the exact same, am now on week 4 of recovery, happy for you to message me if you want to chat and discuss how I dealt with the same symptoms.

YumTea profile image
YumTea

Hi Marty,

What you are experiencing is normal.

The tightness you feel around the scar when you get erect is because the skin as it heals adheres to the underlying tissues. This is not uncommon.

Pain due to erections is also normal - the pain is usually due to the stretching of the underlying tissues which has adhered (stuck) to the skin on the penile shaft and due to the pulling of the shaft skin and tenderness of the scar.

You can address some of the nocturnal erections by urinating before going to bed - and if you do get erections in sleep try to wake up and go to the bathroom and urinate. That should reduce some of the erections.

You are also getting erections because your glans (penis head) is now fully exposed and any touch gives it the sexual stimulation that arouses you.

You can try and limit this by cutting off/shaving all your pubic hair and by wearing a well fitting briefs and keeping your penis against your torso (pointing to your belly button). This should limit the exposure of the front side of your penis head and also limit the loose movement of the penis which can cause the sensation as it rubs against your clothing.

Most important. Be patient.

Marty0607 profile image
Marty0607 in reply to YumTea

Thank you so much for the reply. This is exactly some information I was looking for. Il give it all a give . Really appreciate it

YumTea profile image
YumTea

Oh an one more thing… you can also curl up and sleep on your side to reduce the nocturnal erections and resulting pain.

Gamer297 profile image
Gamer297

Hey Marty,

I experienced this exact thing, these are all my personal experiences, I am not a healthcare professional.

I am 3 weeks into my recovery and I can tell you it will go away. The first 2 weeks were absolute hell for me. I would wake up every 20 min due to erections and having to go in different positions for the erection to go down. I would get 3, max 4 hours of sleep per night

The pain will go away as the area heals. This is the stitches pulling and is completely normal during recovery. Just give it time and you will be good. Try urinating before going to bed as well. What I did to reduce the erection when it did happen was to raise my legs up in the area and hold it. Pretty much pushing the blood flow to my legs helped me a lot but everyone's experience is different. Some prefer going into the fetal sleeping position, but in my case this caused more erections. Also my doctor recommended icing the area, but didnt work for me.

In regards to the head of the penis, I had the same issue with sensitivity. Now that I am 3 weeks post-op the sensitivity is minimal. I have developed a layer of harder skin over the head which seems to be the natural response of the area being exposed. Now I have minor issue with the sensitivity but totally manageable.

I also made a post asking other questions during my recovery, maybe some of those can help u as well as you go through this.

Gamer297 profile image
Gamer297 in reply to Gamer297

Oh another thing I did use when I needed to move around with the sensitivity issue was to purchase sterile gauze and lightly wrap the head of the penis and wear a snug fit underwear . This helped a lot with sensitivity as the gauze acted as a barrier and also worked as an area where the plasma from healing could be collected. I recommend changing it every 1 to 2 hours depending on if you have a lot of plasma leaking. Make sure to keep the area as clean and dry as possible

Marty0607 profile image
Marty0607

Thank you so much for the reply. What you have said sounds exactly what I’m going through. I’ve just come back from our cj asking some more snug underwear to try keep it in position.

It’s got me pretty down last few days with have no sleep and a lot of pain, just made me regret my decision having it done regardless how good it feels when fully healed.

I have noticed that it looked Like I had wee myself some morning with the wet patch on my boxers so that must be the plasma you mentioned?

Gamer297 profile image
Gamer297

Yes, that yellow liquid is plasma (Just learnt that today). When I pull the skin back just a little bit, the yellow liquid comes through which I learned is plasma. (You should feel no pain if u pull back, if you do just leave the area)

What I did to make sure I had no infections was to wash my hands before using the bathroom, urinate, and clean my urine with toilet paper.

Then I would pull the skin/incision site just a little bit and the yellow plasma would flow out, I would absorb this with some sterile gauze.

In the beginning, it's a lot of plasma but as time has gone, less and less plasma is coming out.

I am NOT sure if draining plasma is a good or bad thing but in my case I would feel like it was overflowing so I did this just to relieve the pressure in the beginning. I checked with my doctor last night and he said my healing is going good so nothing to worry about

Crash2000 profile image
Crash2000

I got circumcised 2 weeks ago. The 1st week, I kept a gauze on my penis all day with only the tip free for peeing. It slowly decreased my sensibility. 2nd week, I put a gauze only for sleeping and just let my penis free in my boxers. I put polysporin on my penis before wrapping it with the gauze and I had no problem at all when it came to change the gauze. I'm lucky, I did'nt had much swelling. I still have some swelling but it's healing very well. Good luck to you

Marty0607 profile image
Marty0607 in reply to Crash2000

Thank for you replying. I tried to keep my wrapped but it kept falling off. My main issues were the random erections during every hour of sleep and the sensitivity . I’ve just bought some snug brief which will hopefully do the job. I’m glad you a healing well

Eden_bonny profile image
Eden_bonny

One weird solution but effective. Play game when you erect. I am on my 16 day post op and only 6 staples are down. I got lot of errection in the early morning which are painful. To lessen the pain I start to play COD which helps me to distract my mind and penis goes to normal state within minutes. This is weird but games which gives you excitement nd can help to distract your mind are really helpful.Now, I have only six staples down and I am already on 16th day. If anyone can tell this is normal or should I get those manually removed would be really helpful.

Marty0607 profile image
Marty0607 in reply to Eden_bonny

I play cod every night but every 20-30 minutes during night is abit to much for me haha. Hopefully things will get easier

Akshay993 profile image
Akshay993

Hi, pain will be there if erection occurs atleast for 3 or 4 weeks. Urinate before going to sleep. If you get erection wash your feet with cold water. Hope this helps

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